SINGLE MOTHERS, FATHERS EQUALLY SUCCESSFUL AT RAISING CHILDREN

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A new nationwide study refutes the theory
that children in single-mother households are disadvantaged because
they lack the presence of a father.

Researchers at Ohio State University compared a sample of
456 15- and 16-year-olds who lived in single-father households
with 2,583 teens who lived in single-mother households. The results
showed that the two groups were very similar in terms of deviance
and behavior at school, relationships with others, and school
performance once factors such as family income and parent education
are accounted for.

The results suggest researchers should rethink the assumption
that the sex of a parent plays a critical role in the development
of children, said Douglas Downey, co-author of the study and
assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State.

It is well-known that there are a lot of problems associated
with children who grow up in single-mother households,
Downey said. But our results suggest the problems
arent mainly due to the lack of a father. We believe the
problems rise more from the absence of a second parent in general,
and the fact that single mothers are more likely to be disadvantaged
in terms of income and other factors.

The research was published this week in the Journal of
Marriage and the Family. Downey conducted the study with
James Ainsworth-Darnell and Mikaela Dufur, both graduate students
in sociology at Ohio State.

The researchers used data from the 1990 wave of the National
Education Longitudinal Study. Downey said they compared teens
on a variety of measures that past researchers had suggested
might be affected by whether the children lived in single-mother
or single-father households. For example, some researchers have
argued that fathers are generally the disciplinarians in families,
so children in single-mother households may be more likely to
have behavior problems.

In order to examine this question, the researchers used data
from the NELS that asked teachers to evaluate children on a variety
of behavior measures. The results showed that, if anything, children
raised by single fathers were less well behaved in the classroom.
Teachers judged youths raised by a single father as less successful
at getting along with others and as putting forth less effort
in class.

The results contradict the assumption that fathers are
more successful disciplinarians than mothers, Downey said.

Another assumption has been related to the fact that men score
higher on tests of quantitative skills while women score higher
on tests of verbal skills. Given these facts, some researchers
have argued that children who grow up in single-mother households
wont do as well in mathematics, while those growing up
in single-father households wont do as well in English.

However, the results of this study showed no such difference.
We found that single-mother households didnt promote
verbal skills over quantitative skills, and single-father households
didnt promote quantitative skills over verbal skills,
Downey said. These findings are inconsistent with the claim
that women and men facilitate unique capabilities in their children.

The biggest differences between single mothers and single
fathers had to do with various background characteristics such
as income, education and occupational prestige. For nearly
every demographic and background characteristic that we measured,
single mothers were disadvantaged compared with single fathers,
Downey said.

This suggests that children living with single mothers would
be more successful if the mothers were better off financially.
Parents with higher socioeconomic status are usually better
positioned to create positive family environments, Downey
said.

Some researchers have claimed that the effects of living in
a single-mother or single-father household wont show up
until adulthood, Downey said. To test this claim, the researchers
examined data from the General Social Surveys collected by the
National Opinion Research Center. They examined 4,400 adults
who reported having lived with a single parent at age 16 (750
lived with a single father and 3,650 lived with a single mother).
They looked again at a variety of measures, including years of
education, family income and overall happiness.

Again, the overwhelming pattern was one of little difference
between those who grew up in single-mother households compared
to those who grew up in single-father households, Downey
said.

Downey said family researchers need to distinguish between
family characteristics that affect childrens development
and those characteristics that do not.

People have assumed that the sex of the parent has a
major effect on childrens development, but we found that
isnt the case, he said. Researchers need to
focus on other factors, such as family resources, which seem
to have a real impact.